The Last Royal Rebel
The Life and Death of James, Duke of Monmouth
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- £11.99
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
'A superb biography, which paints a vivid picture of the times and of her subject' Daily Telegraph
'Fascinating, compelling, outrageous and ultimately tragic' Simon Sebag Montefiore
'It is the best royal biography I have read in years' A.N. Wilson
From the Duff Cooper Prize-winning author of The Restless Republic, a remarkable biography of one of the most intriguing figures of the Restoration era.
James, Duke of Monmouth, the favoured illegitimate son of Charles II, was born in exile the year his grandfather Charles I was executed and the English monarchy abolished. Abducted from his mother on his father's orders, he emerged from a childhood in the backstreets of Rotterdam to command the ballrooms of Paris, the brothels of Covent Garden and the battlefields of Flanders.
Such was his appeal that when the monarchy itself came under threat, the cry was for Monmouth to succeed Charles II as king. He inspired both delight and disgust, adulation and abhorrence and, in time, love and loyalty. Louis XIV was his mentor, Nell Gwyn his protector, D'Artagnan his lieutenant, William of Orange his confidant, John Dryden his censor and John Locke his comrade.
In The Last Royal Rebel, Anna Keay matches rigorous scholarship with a storyteller's gift to enrapturing effect. She paints a vivid portrait of the warm, courageous and handsome Duke of Monmouth, a man who by his own admission 'lived a very dissolute and irregular life', but who was ultimately prepared to risk everything for honour and justice. His story, culminating in his fateful invasion, provides a sweeping chronicle of the turbulent decades in which England as we know it was forged.
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PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Keay (The Magnificent Monarch) seeks to rehabilitate the image of James, Duke of Monmouth (1649 1685), the oldest illegitimate child of the "Merry Monarch," Charles II of England. She emphasizes Monmouth's transformation from an unstable royal mistress's hungry child into a "selfish wastrel" and then "principled politician." London's National Portrait Gallery describes Monmouth as "charming, ambitious, and unprincipled," adding to the duke's popular depiction as a womanizing opportunist on a quest to supplant his father's brother as heir to the throne. While Monmouth initially dives into frivolity, later military experience gave him a greater empathy and a hero's reputation. Keay understates the influence of Lucy Walters (Charles II's mistress and Monmouth's mother) and neglects the Duchess of Portsmouth's role in shocking treaty negotiations with the French, but she beautifully explores the relationships Monmouth had with his father; the Duke of York (later James II); and his cousin and friend William of Orange. Monmouth earned the dedication of his soldiers and commoners while laying a road map to the throne for William, who succeeded James II only three years later. Keay's portrayal softens Monmouth's own quest for the throne, though she convincingly describes him as a complex and sympathetic figure who was doomed by his family's fracturing due to England's religious struggles.
